Banaue Rice Terraces

Rice Terraces of the Philippine Cordilleras*
UNESCO World Heritage Site
Banaue Rice Terraces, Ifugao Province, Philippines.
State Party	Philippines
Type	Cultural
Criteria	iii, iv, v
Reference	722
Region**	Asia-Pacific
Inscription history
Inscription	1995  (19th Session)
Endangered	2001-
* Name as inscribed on World Heritage List. ** Region as classified by UNESCO.

Te Banaue Rice Terraces (Tagalog: Hagdan-hagdang Palayan ng Banaue) are 2000-year old terraces that were carved into the mountains of Ifugao in the Philippines by ancestors of the Batad indigenous people. The Banaue terraces are part of the Rice Terraces of the Philippine Cordilleras, ancient sprawling man-made structures from 2,000 to 6,000 years old. They are found in the provinces of Apayao, Benguet, Mountain Province and Ifugao, and are a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Description

Banaue is a 4th class municipality in the province of Ifugao, Philippines. According to the 2000 census, it has a population of 20,563 people in 3,952 households. It is widely known as the site of the Banaue Rice Terraces.

The Rice Terraces are commonly referred to as the "Eighth Wonder of the World." It is commonly thought that the terraces were built with minimal equipment, largely by hand. The terraces are located approximately 1500 meters (5000 ft) above sea level and cover 10,360 square kilometers (about 4000 square miles) of mountainside. They are fed by an ancient irrigation system from the rainforests above the terraces.

The Banaue Rice Terraces begin at the base of the mountain range and extend several thousand feet upwards. The terraces have been named a Unesco World Heritage Site. It is said that their length, if put end to end, would encircle half of the globe. Built 2,000 years ago, the rice terraces manifest the engineering skill and ingenuity of the sturdy Ifugaos. They are irrigated by means of mountain streams and springs that have been tapped and channeled into canals that run downhill through the rice terraces.

The rice terraces once stretched northeast to Cagayan and as far south as Quezon. However they are now slowly being abandoned and showing signs of deterioration. A severe 1990 earthquake damaged some of the terraces' irrigation systems, while El Niño triggered droughts that led giant earthworms to erode the terraces' soil. Furthermore, the rice variety most suited to the area's cool climate is not a high-yielding crop; because it takes so long to mature, some Ifugao families have abandoned their land in the rice terraces in favor of land that reaps faster rewards.

Ifugao

An Ifugao Terraces Commission was created in 1994 but has since been superseded by the Banaue Rice Terraces task force, which was closed in 2002.

Ifugao is a landlocked province of the Philippines in the Cordillera Administrative Region in Luzon. Covering a total land area of 251, 778 hectares, the province of Ifugao is located in the mountainous region characterized by rugged terrain, river valleys, and massive forests. Its capital is Lagawe and borders Benguet to the west, Mountain Province to the north, Isabela to the east, and Nueva Vizcaya to the south.

It is named after the term "i-pugo" (which means i-from/people and pugo-earth thus people of the earth).

The Banaue Rice Terraces are the main tourist attraction in the province. These 2000-year-old terraces were carved into the mountains without the aid of machinery to provide level steps where the natives can plant rice. In 1995, they were declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

People and culture

A traditional house in Ifugao situated somewhere atop a mountain

Ifugao refers to the people, their dialect and the province they live in the mountainous northern part of the Philippines. They are known as an independent, agricultural society. They speak various Ifugao dialects, such as Tuwali and Ayangan. They can also speak Filipino vernacular dialect like Ilokano and Tagalog. Many Ifugaos, especially in Lagawe, Kiangan, Mayoyao, Aguinaldo and Banaue, are fluent in English as well.

This people prefer to be called Ifugaos as opposed to the more generic and less accurate Igorot term that includes all the peoples of the Cordillera Region, which specifically refers to some of the inhabitants of Benguet.

Rice culture

Ifugao culture revolves around the rice which is considered a prestige crop. Thus, it is not surprising that there is an elaborate and complex array of rice culture feasts inextricably linked with taboos and intricate agricultural rites from rice cultivation to rice consumption. Harvest season certainly calls for grandiose thanksgiving feasts while the concluding harvest rites ‘tungo or tungul’ (the day of rest) entail a strict taboo of any agricultural work. Partaking of the rice beer (bayah), rice cakes, and betel nut is an indelible practice during the festivities and ritual activities.

Rice in Ifugao ready to be harvested

Rightly known as the unrivaled rice terrace builders, the Ifugao people practice swidden farming expending most of their energy working at their terraces and forest lands while occasionally tending to swidden/shifting root crop cultivation as a complementary form of agriculture. This diversification in agriculture, that is to say, rice growing while cultivating indigenous edible shells, fruit trees, and root crops, has been exhibited among Ifugaos for generations which reflects their awareness in diversified but sustainable farming. Even the building of the rice terraces, which is a painstaking and backbreaking work of blanketing walls with stones and earth and effectively drawing water from a main irrigation canal above the terrace clusters, clearly manifests the importance Ifugao people put on their rice terraces. Indigenous rice terracing technologies are in fact identified with the Ifugao rice terraces such as their hydraulic knowledge (use of water as a construction tool), stonework and earthwork (the knowledge of utilizing various types of soil and rocks to form stable terrace walls), terrace design (maximizing the terrace area and building them into an agriculturally-productive area) and lastly, terrace maintenance (traditional irrigation and drainage management systems). As their source of life and art, the rice terraces have sustained and shaped the lives of the community members.

History

Fabrics weaved by an Ifugao native

Ifugao was formerly a part of the old Mountain Province. It was created as an independent province on June 18, 1966 by virtue of Republic Act No. 4695. The name is derived from the word “IPUGO”. Pugo means “hill” while the prefix “I” means “from”. The Spaniards changed ""Ipugo"" to ""Ipugaw"" and it was finally changed by the Americans to Ifugao.

For the Ifugaos, custom is the basis of all laws. But these customs would mean nothing if not supported by ancestry knowledge. Among the Ifugaos, extensive pedigrees exist. They are the graphic representation that puts in evidence one of the most basic principles of the Ifugao culture: "We can not but do what our ancestors told us" (Lambretch CICM 1964).

Ifugao became the center of warfare during the last stages of World War II. It was in Ifugao, particularly in Mt. Napulawan, where General Yamashita, the known "Tiger of Malaya," decided to put his last stand against the Filipino and American forces. He informally surrendered to Captain Grisham of the 6th US Army in the Philippines, based in Kiangan, Ifugao, before he was flown to Camp John Hay where he formally surrendered.

Ifugao finally gained provincial status on June 18, 1966 with the municipality of Lagawe as the capital town.

Banaue Rice Terraces, Ifugao Province, Philippines.

Abstract pattern of terrace rice fields in Yunnan Province, southern China.

Terrace Rice Culture

In agriculture, a terrace is a leveled section of a hilly cultivated area, designed as a method of soil conservation to slow or prevent the rapid surface runoff of irrigation water. Often such land is formed into multiple terraces, giving a stepped appearance. The human landscapes of rice cultivation in terraces that follow the natural contours of the escarpments like contour plowing is a classic feature of the island of Bali and the Banaue Rice Terraces in Benguet, Philippines. In Peru, the Inca made use of otherwise unusable slopes by drystone walling to create terraces. This form of land use is prevalent in many countries, and is used for crops requiring a lot of water, such as rice. Terraces are also easier for both mechanical and manual sowing and harvesting than a steep slope would be.

Natural terracing, the result of small-scale erosion, is formed where cattle are grazed for long periods on steep sloping pasture. Sometimes, as a Glastonbury Tor, the result is regular enough to give an impression of archaeological artifacts.

From its origins in agriculture the practice of formally terracing a sloping site evolved in gardening. The Hanging Gardens of Babylon could have been built on an artificial mountain with stepped terraces like those on a ziggurat. At the seaside Villa of the Papyri in Herculaneum, the villa gardens of Julius Caesar's father-in-law fell away giving pleasant and varied views of the Bay of Naples.

Terraces were also methods of soil conservation farming for the Inca. They used a system of canals and aqueducts, and made the water flow through dry land and helped them be fertile lands.

The Incas constructed the terraces on the slopes of the Andes mountains. They cut step-like ledges into the mountainside, so they could be used as field, where they planted crops. Using terraces also stopped the rain from washing away the soil. This technique was so successful, it is still used in the Andes Mountains.

In old English, a terrace was also called a lynch and there is a fine example of a Lynch Mill in Lyme Regis, for which the water arrives via a river ducted along a terrace. This set-up was used in steeply hilly areas in the UK.

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Agricultural terraces

Local Peoples

Locals to this day still tend to the rice and vegetables on the terraces, although more and more younger Ifugaos do not find farming appealing, often opting for the more lucrative hospitality industry generated by the Rice Terraces. The result is the gradual erosion of the characteristic "steps," which need constant reconstruction and care.

Panoramic view of the Banaue Rice Terraces

References

ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

• Beyer, Otley. 1955. The origin and history of the Philippine rice terraces. Quezon City: Published by the National Research Council of the Philippines, University of The Philippines. OCLC 50218141.
• Medina, Susan Calo. 1989. Terraces of Banaue. Los Angeles, CA: Philippine Expressions. OCLC 43042776.
• Medina, Carlos R. 2003. Understanding the Ifugao rice terraces. Baguio City, Philippines: Saint Louis University, Cordillera Research and Development Foundation. OCLC 62073906.
• Wackernagel, Frederick W. 1985. Rice for the terraces: cold-tolerant varieties and other strategies for increasing rice production in the mountains of Southeast Asia. Thesis (Ph. D.)—Cornell University, Jan., 1985. OCLC 48438516.
• World Heritage Sites, and Schlessinger Media. 2005. Vietnam & the Philippines. Wonders of the Asian world. Wynnewood, Penn: Schlessinger Media. ISBN 9781417103423.

External links

• UNESCO World Heritage Site Link. Retrieved July 6, 2008.
• Philippine Standard Geographic Code. Retrieved July 6, 2008.
• 2000 Philippine Census Information. Retrieved July 6, 2008.
• More photos and information on Banaue, Ifugao. Retrieved July 6, 2008.
• The Julia Campbell Agroforest Memorial Eco-Park in Asipulo, Ifugao. Retrieved July 6, 2008.

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